Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications

This book of Proceedings collects the papers presented at the 4th International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications, MAVEBA 2005, held 29-31 October 2005, Firenze, Italy. The workshop is organised every two years, and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in research and industrial developments, in the area of voice analysis for biomedical applications. The scope of the Workshop includes all aspects of voice modelling and analysis, ranging from fundamental research to all kinds of biomedical applications and related established and advanced technologies

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies

Pan European Voice Conference - PEVOC 11

The Pan European VOice Conference (PEVOC) was born in 1995 and therefore in 2015 it celebrates the 20th anniversary of its establishment: an important milestone that clearly expresses the strength and interest of the scientific community for the topics of this conference. The most significant themes of PEVOC are singing pedagogy and art, but also occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. PEVOC takes place in different European cities every two years (www.pevoc.org). The PEVOC 11 conference includes a symposium of the Collegium Medicorum Theatri (www.comet collegium.com

Resonance Tuning in Professional Operatic Sopranos

Soprano singers are capable of singing at pitches exceeding 1000 Hz, where the spacing of the harmonics means that the vocal tract resonances are not fully utilised. Sopranos therefore move the articulators, to "tune" the resonances of the vocal tract near to harmonics of the voice source, improving the efficiency of sound production. Although resonance tuning has been observed in soprano singers, it is not yet understood how this phenomenon is achieved and which articulators play the most significant roles in altering the vocal tract resonances. A preliminary experiment explored the use of broad band noise excitation of the vocal tract to observe resonance tuning behaviour in girl choristers. A second experiment extended this procedure to include MRI to observe the vocal tracts of 6 professional soprano opera singers and investigate how the articulators affect vocal tract resonances. The effects of MRI measurement conditions on singers were also investigated to establish whether measurements obtained during MRI are representative of normal singing. Finally, a perceptual test was conducted to study the perception of different methods of resonance tuning. As expected, considerable R1:f0 tuning, and some R2:2f0 tuning was observed in both groups. MRI revealed some links between resonances and articulators, however no consistent patterns in production were observed across subjects. The results showed strong differences in resonance production between different vowels and subjects, suggesting that resonance tuning production is not only a complex and context-specific topic, but also highly individual

Articulation in time : Some word-initial segments in Swedish

Speech is both dynamic and distinctive at the same time. This implies a certain contradiction which has entertained researchers in phonetics and phonology for decades. The present dissertation assumes that articulation behaves as a function of time, and that we can find phonological structures in the dynamical systems. EMA is used to measure mechanical movements in Swedish speakers. The results show that tonal context affects articulatory coordination. Acceleration seems to divide the movements of the jaw and lips into intervals of postures and active movements. These intervals are affected differently by the tonal context. Furthermore, a bilabial consonant is shorter if the next consonant is also made with the lips. A hypothesis of a correlation between acoustic segment duration and acceleration is presented. The dissertation highlights the importance of time for how speech ultimately sounds. Particularly significant is the combination of articulatory timing and articulatory duration

Origins of Human Language

This book proposes a detailed picture of the continuities and ruptures between communication in primates and language in humans. It explores a diversity of perspectives on the origins of language, including a fine description of vocal communication in animals, mainly in monkeys and apes, but also in birds, the study of vocal tract anatomy and cortical control of the vocal productions in monkeys and apes, the description of combinatory structures and their social and communicative value, and the exploration of the cognitive environment in which language may have emerged from nonhuman primate vocal or gestural communication